With a spectacular fireworks display set to usher in Canada’s sesquicentennial on New Year’s Eve, the Department of Canadian Heritage has already begun planning for an equally impressive pyrotechnical show in the nation’s capital next July 1.

Companies have until the end of January to respond to a government tender inviting bids for a “pyromusical fireworks display” on Canada Day — part of a full weekend of activities in Ottawa-Gatineau celebrating the country’s 150th birthday. Canadian Heritage will release full program details in the spring.

Few spectators will realize it, but the July 1 fireworks will last precisely 20 minutes and 17 seconds, a reference to Canada’s special year. (There’s a similarly veiled allusion to 2017 in the main New Year’s Eve display, which will begin at 8:17 p.m. — aka 20:17).

Like the New Year’s Eve display, the Canada Day fireworks will be accompanied by a studio soundtrack on a time code, featuring multiple Canadian artists from various musical styles, with an equal portion of French and English.

The fireworks themselves, which must include 150 of the largest shells authorized in Canada, will mainly be launched from Nepean Point and at the bottom of the cliff next to the Alexandra Bridge.

The “spectacular, colourful and appealing” pyromusical display will start around 10 p.m. and “must sustain the enthusiasm of the spectators,” the tender says, with no more than three seconds of dead air between explosions.

“It must have an impressive beginning (minimum of one minute), a moderately paced middle portion, a ‘false finale’ at approximately four minutes from the end, followed by a grand finale of minimum one minute.”

There will also be smaller special effects displays fired from unspecified launch sites along Confederation Boulevard, the 7.5-kilometre ceremonial route that links the Ontario and Quebec sections of the National Capital Region.

The sheer size and ambition of the July 1 display means its cost is certain to far exceed the $88,727 the government spent on this year’s Canada Day fireworks in the capital.

The cost could well rival the $213,570 price tag for the two New Year’s Eve fireworks at 8:17 p.m. and midnight.

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